Where those associated with Western films from around the world are laid to rest.

Friday, June 22, 2012

RIP Richard Adler

Composer, lyricist Richard Adler dies at 90 in NY

NEW YORK (AP) — Composer and lyricist Richard Adler, who
won Tony Awards for co-writing snappy and infectious, songs for such hit
Broadway musicals as ‘‘The Pajama Game’’ and ‘‘Damn Yankees’’ and who staged
and produced President John F. Kennedy’s birthday celebration featuring a
breathy Marilyn Monroe, has died. He was 90.

Adler died Thursday at his home in Southampton, N.Y., his
widow, Susan A. Ivory, said.

Adler staged and produced several shows for U.S.
presidents, including the unforgettable 1962 extravaganza for Kennedy at
Madison Square Garden where Monroe sang ‘‘Happy Birthday.’’

He and Jerry Ross wrote the music and lyrics to ‘‘The
Pajama Game,’’ a light comedy about labor-management relations at the
Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory, which won the best musical Tony in 1955.

In a 2006 interview with The Associated Press, Adler
recounted how the song ‘‘Hernando’s Hideaway’’ began from ‘‘The Pajama Game.’’
The show’s authors, George Abbott and Richard Bissell, needed a tune for the
second act, and Abbott approached Adler.

‘‘He said, ‘Write a song that can be performed in a dimly
lit, smoke-filled nightclub with a lot of fervent-looking people. Oh, and make
it Latin,'’’ Adler said. ‘‘It was a piece of cake for me.’’

What emerged was a frothy Latin tango with the lyrics:
‘‘I know a dark secluded place/A place where no one knows your face/A glass of
wine a fast embrace/It’s called Hernando’s Hideaway... Ole!’’

The song went on to have a successful life outside the
theater, hitting the top of the pop charts and later being recorded by Archie
Blyer, band leader Billy May and even Ella Fitzgerald.

Did Adler think it would be a hit? ‘‘No. I had no idea,’’
he said.

Adler teamed up with Ross again for ‘‘Damn Yankees,’’ in
which a rabid baseball fan sells his soul to the devil in exchange for a chance
to lead his favorite team to American League pennant glory. It won the best
musical Tony crown the next year.

The fruitful Ross-Adler union ended when Ross died of a
lung ailment in 1955 at age 29. Adler went on to earn a Tony nomination for
writing the lyrics and music for 1961’s ‘‘Kwamina.’’

Adler was born in New York City in 1921 and graduated
from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1943. He served in the
U.S. Naval Reserve during World War II.

He composed several symphonic works, including
‘‘Wilderness Suite,’’ which was commissioned by the U.S. Department of the
Interior, and ‘‘The Lady Remembers,’’ to celebrate the Statue of Liberty’s
centennial. He also composed two ballets for the Chicago City Ballet: ‘‘Eight
by Adler’’ in 1984 and ‘‘Chicago.’’

Adler also produced works on Broadway, including the play
‘‘The Sin of Pat Muldoon’’ and the musical ‘‘Rex.’’ He is a member of the
Songwriter’s Hall of Fame.

Adler is survived by his wife; his children, Andrew
Adler, Katherine Adler and Charles Shipman; and three grandchildren, Damien and
Scarlett Adler and Lola Jane Shipman

About Me

Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1946 I have a BA degree in American History from Cal St. Northridge. I've been researching the American West and western films since the early 1980s and visiting filming sites in Spain and the U.S.A. Elected a member of the Spaghetti Western Hall of Fame 2010.